The Lock and Key
by dapperacademywarbler
Summary: Future Fic. Santana and Brittany are now 26 years old and have been together for 7 years. Brittany works as a dance teacher at McKinley, and after receiving a call from her worried girlfriend, officer Lopez shows up to help with a wonderful mystery.


AN: This is the first ever Brittana one shot I have ever written, I know it's not the best and I know I'm not that good a writer but I am trying to improve. It's like my little escape I guess, haha. Anyway, I wanted it to be cute and full of fluff... serious fluff. 

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><p>"Hey, beautiful," purred the Latina, currently leaning against the doorframe to her girlfriend's office. She watched to see the gorgeous blonde turn around, accompanied by an old tubby cat dangling in her arms like a large teddy bear.<p>

"Santana, I'm so glad you're here," Brittany said with a sad smile. She set the cat onto the floor and approached Santana, wrapping her arms around her small waist. "I'm really worried, San... someone changed the combination on my locker." Santana smiled softly to herself.

"You still use your old locker?" Santana asked; simply for the purpose of hearing Brittany explain why she still used it. She secretly loved how Brittany, who was now a 26 year old dance teacher at McKinley high - abused her position, bringing Lord Tubbington to school on certain days and _still _using her old locker from when they both used to attend there. It was a precious reminder to Santana of how beautiful Brittany's mind actually was. The tall blonde pulled away and looked at Santana with a serious frown across her forehead.

"I have to use my old locker, Santana. I can't keep things in here incase the midnight elves steal them when I'm not here, and if I keep my stuff anywhere else I'd get lost and end up going into a store closet and walk into Narnia and I'd never come home... My old locker is the _only _place in school that I remember without getting lost... except for the girl's bathrooms because I go there a lot."

Santana pursed her lips, holding back a sly smile after hearing Brittany explain everything. She straightened her back and narrowed her eyes, fixing the cap on her head.

"So, why did you call me here? Couldn't a janitor open your locker for you?"

"Because you're a police officer, San," Brittany sighed, "I need you to run an infestation so that you can figure out who did it."

"...You mean an investigation?"

"Yeah..." Brittany's eyes glanced at the floor, she was clearly troubled by someone changing the code to her locker. "Please, Santana? All of my stuff is in there..."

The Latina took a step forward and placed two fingers underneath her girlfriend's chin and lifted her head up so that her dark brown eyes met the radiant blue. Santana pressed a soft kiss to Brittany's lips before smiling gently. "I'll figure it out for you," she murmured, "I promise."

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><p>Within the space of fifteen minutes, Santana had closed off the hallway with police tape at either end - despite the fact that a few students tried to cross afterwards. It didn't take her very long to shoo them away, threatening that she'd go all Lima Heights up on their asses if they dared to cross an 'official' police investigation. Poor innocent Brittany climbed over the tape and took her girlfriend's hand, lacing their fingers together.<p>

"Should I show you my locker?" she asked with a timid voice.

"I've got it, Britt," Santana assured, guiding Brittany along to the exact locker. She let go of Brittany's hand and started turning the dial, listening to the locker clicking as she was trying to figure out the code. The blonde bit her lip and watched carefully, admiring Santana for leaving work to come and fix all of this for her.

"I can't believe someone would do this."

"I know, I know," Santana sighed softly, terminating her code cracking session for a moment to talk. "You never know, whoever changed it might've had good intentions..."

"…For changing my combination? It took me like, a year to remember it. Now it'll take me another year to think of a new one and get used to that too."

"I'll help you remember it."

"I wish the key necklace you gave me could open it. I wear it every day, I try using it on every lock I find but nothing works. Maybe it's one of those keys that send you into the future or back in time," Brittany mumbled, pulling the silver key necklace out from underneath her pink shirt. Santana smirked softly and nodded as she pressed her ear against the locker to continue.

It was a gift to Brittany from Santana to mark their 6th year of being together, and Brittany had worn it ever since. The Latina laughed quietly to herself, God, she'd become such a sap over the last few years. If her teenage self could somehow jump in time to see her, she could _guarantee_ a few words being said about toughening up. The only romantic thing she did back in high school was sing Songbird to Brittany to remind her of her feelings but since then? She's softened up a hell of a lot when it came to her girlfriend, and only her girlfriend.

"Got it!" the police officer exclaimed, opening up Brittany's locker. She watched as the blonde jumped up and down excitedly whilst chanting 'thank you' three times over. Brittany took a peak into her locker and paused, frowning in confusion. "Something wrong, baby?" Santana asked.

"I don't remember putting that there," Brittany replied as she pulled out a black box with a lock on it. "Oh my God, what if Santa came early?"

Santana took the box and examined it with her eyes. "I don't think it's from Santa, Brittany." It was a small wooden treasure chest-like box, with a silver padlock on the front of it. She pulled out her set of keys and started going through them, testing each one.

"Should I be worried? What if there's a bomb in there? I don't want you to-"

"I won't blow up," Santana assured. God, how was Brittany being so adorable today? Everything about her was adorable, from the Panda-styled hat she was wearing with her outfit to the way she was worrying about her locker as if it was the only thing on earth that mattered. Santana watched her and the delicate fluttering of Brittany's eyelashes as she focused on Santana trying to open the strange lock, the way her blue eyes lit up whenever she smiled... they'd been together for 7 years now - and Santana knew that she could never ever get sick of seeing that expression.

"I can't open it," Santana said calmly. She looked at Brittany as if asking for help, which made the blonde show a sign of slight panic as she didn't have a clue what to do. Then, something finally clicked. Brittany took hold of her necklace and slipped it off over her head.

"Maybe my magic key will work?" she whispered, her blue eyes showing a sign of curiosity towards the box and the key. The Latina turned the box around so the lock faced Brittany, who was now crouching down as she inserted the key into the mysterious lock. There was a small click. "It works! Oh my God, is this a key for treasure?"

"I guess you could say that," replied her girlfriend, who opened the box and took something out of it, hiding it behind her back.

"What was tha-"

"Brittany?"

"...Yes?"

Santana placed the black box into her locker and held Brittany's hand tightly in her free one. She could feel a spark in their fingertips, the same spark that happened every time they held hands, that very spark that reminded Santana that Brittany was hers to love, and no one elses. The Latina looked around, double checking that there was no one there to ruin this immaculate moment.

"I have a confession... I was the person who changed the combination on your locker," she began. Brittany's expression softened into a look of intricacy, yet she was clearly eager to listen to what Santana had to say. "I snuck in earlier today before the school opened, I opened your locker and placed the box inside before changing the code. I wanted today to be one you'll always remember... I wanted you to think back to when we both used to stand in these hallways. Today is... a special day for me, Brittany. It marks the 8 year anniversary of when I... fell in love with you."

"I-I don't understand," Brittany whispered with a smile.

"_This _was the very spot that I first told you that I loved you, and I had known for so long before I told you but... today marks the day that I had the guts to come and talk to you about it. It marks the day that I came out, and it marked the day that I knew you would always accept me for who I was. Then there was that time by my locker, when Kurt came back to McKinley... and Mr. S told us to make those stupid Born This Way t-shirts... and y-you said to me that clearly I didn't love myself as much as you did..."

She clutched to the object in her hand behind her back, needing to get a good hold of it to come to realisation that she was actually doing this. Santana knew what she was doing, of course she did, she felt right about it with every fibre in her body; she just needed to double take that it was herself doing this, and not anyone else.

"Britt, there is not a day that passes by and I wake up and I don't feel lucky, because right now? I feel like the luckiest woman on earth... I wake up and I see you curled up next to me, sometimes your hair will have fallen into your eyes and I'll move it out the way so I can see your beautiful face. There's that precious moment when you wake up, your eyes look like they're a deep blue until you've opened your eyes properly, and then you make that adorable noise when you yawn... your scent on the sheets, i-it's how I know I'm home sometimes..."

Santana pursed her lips and looked right into Brittany's crystal blue eyes. She placed a soft kiss to her lips, feeling their eyelashes flutter delicately for that moment. When Santana pulled away, she noticed a tear roll down Brittany's cheek. It was followed by a shy smile, and a nod - as if begging her to carry on talking.

"I can't imagine what the hell my life would be like without you, Brittany. I can't even imagine what my life was like before I met you, before we met in 3rd grade. Sometimes I'll... wake up of a night just to check that you're beside me, some days I'm so scared I'm going to lose you-"

"You could never lose me-"

"I-I know, I know. Brittany, I've never loved _anyone_ or anything as much as I love you. Even after 7 years of being together, you still make me feel like I did back in high school, you make me feel like... like I'm actually worth something, that I'm a good person and..." she paused to let out a nervous, yet soft laugh. She could feel her heart beating heavily into her chest now, her voice was shaking in the most pleasant of ways and from that moment, Santana knew that everything was falling perfectly into place and now - hopefully, so would their future. "I know in my heart that I-I probably don't deserve you, and I know we've had some hard times along the way but I _promise_, I am going to look after you and be with you for as long as you'll let me..."

Brittany placed a hand to her mouth to hide her smile whilst tears strayed from her eyes, she found herself looking down at a small red box with the lid open, white velvet cushioned material on the base, and a beautiful diamond ring glistening at her like a star in the sky. She muffled her happy sobs as best as she could, looking at Santana, who was now kneeling down on one knee and also crying at everything that she'd just said.

"Brittany Susan Pierce, will you marry me?"

"Y-yes, yes! Santana... I-I'd love to..." Brittany cried, helping Santana up off of the floor. Their lips pressed together, their damps cheeks touched and they held each other close, neither wanting to let go. "I love you so much, Santana."

"I love you too, _always_..."


End file.
